The invention relates generally to systems that include an automated interrogation device and more particularly to storing information in a database format for use with interactive voice recognition equipment and like.
There are a number of alternatives for implementing a call-handling facility to transact business. The business transaction may be informational, such as providing product support for items sold by the business which operates the call-handling facility, or may be directed to product marketing. In an automatic call distribution (ACD) implementation, agents are employed to handle incoming and/or outgoing calls. The advantage of an ACD system is that each call is handled by a human. However, in some applications ACD agents must receive significant training in order to ensure competent handling of issues raised by callers. This is particularly true in a product support environment. Another concern is that the operation of an ACD system is expensive.
Automated interrogation devices may be used to at least reduce the number of calls that require handling by a person. The most common automated interrogation device is an interactive voice response (IVR) unit. An IVR may be configured to present menus of options that are traversed in a listen-respond manner. A first listen-respond message may be presented to a caller with a greeting that solicits a response from the caller. The response is detected by the unit and used as a prompt for presenting the next option. Thus, a call processing tree is formed by properly organizing the messages. A first series of messages may be used to verify identification of a caller, such as by requiring input of a personal identification number (PIN) using dual tone multifrequency (DTMF) signals generated by depressing keys at the telephone of the caller. Another sequence may be used to identify the caller""s purpose. For example, in a banking environment, the caller may be instructed to depress a designated key if the interest is in obtaining a present account balance, but to depress a different key if the interest is in obtaining information regarding a particular transaction. In a sales environment, the sequence may be related to identifying a product, its price, and the inventory status of the product prior to placing an order.
A call-handling facility having IVR functionality may use a high capacity programmable platform that is flexible, scalable and upgradable. Using this platform, all of the necessary information is maintained at the call-handling facility. Typically, the information is stored in a database format. Depending upon the type of business that is to be transacted, the information distinguishes users of the facility (e.g., by using PINs), provides accounting, distinguishes products, and identifies product availability. Thus, the call-handling facility is self-contained with respect to completion of the business transaction. The concerns are that the high capacity platform is expensive and may be difficult to maintain in some applications.
At a lower end, the IVR functionality may be achieved using a low capacity programmable platform. In many applications, this requires storage of the necessary information at a remote site. Thus, the IVR unit is at the call-handling facility, but a remote host is used as an external database. The host is not solely dedicated to providing support for the single IVR unit. The use of the host reduces hardware costs. However, this requires a real-time data link between the IVR unit and the host in order to complete a transaction.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,345,501 to Shelton describes a telephone central office having a voice response unit and an adjunct computer. Consequently, there are separate data storage capacities for voice messages and vendor information. The vendor information is in a database format of customer identifications and inventory availabilities for a number of vendors. Each vendor maintains a host computer, but the various inventories are uploaded to the adjunct computer at the telephone central office. This reduces the memory storage requirements of the individual host computers. That is, the concern is that the hosts have limited capacity, rather than that the adjunct computer has limited capacity. Business is transacted using the adjunct computer. The information is then transmitted on-line to the appropriate host computers in order to create and activate orders at the hosts. The hosts update their inventory information and download the updated information to the adjunct computer for storage.
While the prior art approaches of storing and accessing the high volume of information needed for a transactional call-handling facility have worked well for their intended purposes, what is needed is a system and method that provide a cost-efficient means for operating a call-handling facility having automated interrogation functionality.
A system and a method for automated call handling of business interactions include providing local memory having stored records, specific to parties and having pre-programmed messages relating to the business interaction. A remote memory is used to store master records that are accessible by the local memory. In the preferred embodiment, the records stored in the local memory are subsets of the master records. The pre-programmed messages are directed to call parties using an automated interrogation device, which is preferably an interactive voice response (IVR) unit. The local memory provides a reduced capacity storage for the records, typically in a database format. The creation process and the file transfer process from the remote memory are independent from and asynchronous to IVR operation.
The subset records contain sufficient information to allow a calling party to complete an identification procedure and to at least initiate an intended business operation. For example, in a banking environment, the locally stored information may include customer names, account identifications, account balances, dates, and/or other information that is needed to verify identities and that is commonly requested by bank customers. In response to an incoming call, the IVR unit queries the calling party to determine the party""s identity. The locally stored record of the party is accessed and may be retrieved to a temporary storage, such as in random access memory (RAM). Thus, the same information is contained in the remotely stored master record, the locally stored subset record, and the temporary storage. The information in the temporary storage is accessible to the automatic interrogation application in the same manner as the pre-programmed static messages. However, the variety and type of messages are increased.
Preferably, the subset records have a format of either one or two database tables. The first table is indexed by the customer identification. The optional second table is indexed according to the business of interest.
The database information in the subset records is readily accessible without an on-line connection to the remote storage of the master records. However, a data exchange is frequently implemented in order to synchronize the two sets of records (i.e., match record information). For example, a synchronization application may detect the times in which there are no ongoing calls within the system. The synchronization process may be implemented with any new callers receiving a message that presents options of calling back in a short time or being placed in a queue. A data connection is formed between the system and the remote storage site. Any updates of information are performed at this time. In an alternative embodiment, the synchronization can occur during ongoing calls, but without consequence on the ongoing calls. For example, there may be two separate instances of storing the subset records, so that the synchronization does not impact any ongoing updates of a subset record of a calling party.
The method of manipulating the data for a call-handling facility includes storing the master records at the site that is remote from the facility and generating subset records from the master records for storage at the facility. Each of the subset records is associated with one user of the call-handling facility and contains a portion of the information contained in the corresponding master record. The automated interrogation device (e.g., an IVR unit) is responsive to connection of a call and directs messages at the calling party. The messages are related to performing a business interaction with the calling party. The calling party is identified and the appropriate subset record is retrieved for temporary storage (e.g., in RAM). In a xe2x80x9cretrieve informationxe2x80x9d application, such as in a banking environment, the IVR may prompt the calling party for an identification and password, then open the local database, retrieve the subset record, verify the identification, read the result, close the subset record, and verbalize results to the caller. In an xe2x80x9center dataxe2x80x9d application, such as in a sales environment, the IVR may prompt the caller for an identification and password and data, then open the local database, retrieve the appropriate subset record, verify the identification, alter the subset record according to the obtained data, close the subset record, and signal completion. Periodically, the local storage of subset records is synchronized with the remote storage of master records.